The “fact” that San Francisco was completely destroyed by the Great Earthquake of 1906 is widely known, of course — but less well known is the actual fact that it was the subsequent fire, raging for three days, that did almost all of the damage.

I stumbled across a little piece of this history several years ago when I rented an apartment on 20th street, in between the Mission District and Noe Valley neighborhoods. As I walked up to Dolores Park and down to the Mission along my new street, I started to notice something odd about the buildings on one side… and also started to wonder about the fact that the fire hydrant at the top of the hill was painted bright gold! After a bit of research I discovered what makes this street unique in San Francisco, and the historical link to the great fire that burned it to the ground.

The miraculous golden fire hydrant, at the highest corner of Dolores Park! (the plaque was added after I moved out of the neighborhood.)

A dramatic panorama of San Francisco after the fire.

photographs of the Mission District’s Valencia Street — before and after.

Representative buildings from the north “burned” side of 20th street. These date from the 1920s and 30s.

The old survivors, all dating from before 1906, all standing on the south side of the street. This is as close as San Francisco gets to ancient history!

View from Dolores Park back towards the city — the 1906 refugees from the fire could see the entire panorama of destruction from here. Today it’s referred to as “Dolores Beach”!

The Fire raged for three days, April 18-20, and was deliberately & intentionally stopped across Dolores street from Mission Dolores by an ecumenical mass of 300 men who refilled their water wagons 10 times, pushing them south on Dolores then right onto steep 20th st.,then feathered the hand brake to roll back down to spray on the east side of Dolores across from “The Mish” as my then 21 year old grandfather Walter B. Smith called it. He & his brothers Arthur & Orde & their father Dr. Thomas Orde Lees Smith fought the fire hand to hand until it was stopped at that line of Dolores. The statue at Dolores & Market st. mentions it, I think.

On my way to school tonight (I take classes at the Mission campus of CCSF on Valencia), I am going to look out the window of the J Church and take a peek at the fire hydrant. Soon, my friend Tim and I will head up there for a proper viewing.

Know why there’s that big knob on top of the old hydrants?Back in the horse drawn days there weren’t a whole lot of trees in SF so the fire department would pull the pumper up to the hydrant closest to the fire, drop the traces (the parts that attach the horses to the fire engine) and then go down the street to the next hydrant and tie the horses there.

Five years after your post, but an update…I know there’s another golden fireplug on Noe near the corner of Ford Street (between 17th and 18th)–I used to live in the 1890 house that’s built next to it. I don’t have a source for it, but I heard there are six hydrants that are credited with saving their neighborhoods and are painted gold each year on the anniversary of the earthquake and fire.